If you were a pre-Homo sapiens hominin, the place to see and be seen was Africa in what is today colloquially known as the Cradle of Humankind. True to form, we're late to the party, but come along with us anyway for a tour of the cave sites that revolutionized paleoanthropology. Thank you to everyone who came out to the live show! Links * When Did Homo Sapiens First Appear? (Discover) [https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/when-did-homo-sapiens-first-appear] * Oldest Homo sapiens bones ever found shake foundations of the human story (The Guardian) [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/07/oldest-homo-sapiens-bones-ever-found-shake-foundations-of-the-human-story] * Scientists discover the oldest Homo sapiens fossils at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco (Phys.org) [06-scientists-oldest-homo-sapiens-fossils.html">https://phys.org/news/2017-06-scientists-oldest-homo-sapiens-fossils.html] * Caves of Hercules (Atlas Obscura) [https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/caves-of-hercules] * The Caves of Hercules – The Map of Africa (Barclays Travel) [https://www.barclaycardtravel.com/t5/Travel-Stories/The-Caves-of-Hercules-The-Map-of-Africa/ba-p/2258223] * Skull Fossils in Cave Show Mix of Human Relatives Roamed South Africa (The New York Times) [africa-caves.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/science/skulls-africa-caves.html] * Contemporaneity of Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and early Homo erectus in South Africa (Science) [https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6486/eaaw7293] * Newly discovered fossil documents small-scale evolutionary changes in an extinct human species (Washington University in St. Louis) [https://source.wustl.edu/2020/11/newly-discovered-fossil-documents-small-scale-evolutionary-changes-in-an-extinct-human-species/] * 'Little Foot' hominin emerges from stone after millions of years (Nature) [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07651-z] * World's oldest camp bedding found in South African cave (Science) [https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/08/world-s-oldest-camp-bedding-found-south-african-cave] * Fire and grass-bedding construction 200 thousand years ago at Border Cave, South Africa (Science) [https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6505/863] * 200,000 years ago, humans preferred to kip cozy (Science Daily) [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200814123205.htm] * First Use of Poison (Archaeology) [https://www.archaeology.org/issues/61-1301/features/267-top-10-2012-border-cave-beeswax-poison] * When the Sea Saved Humanity (Scientific American) [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-the-sea-saved-humanity-2012-12-07/] * Early Tools Were Born From Fire (Science) [https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2009/08/early-tools-were-born-fire] * Ancient hominins used fire to make stone tools (Phys.org) [10-ancient-hominins-stone-tools.html">https://phys.org/news/2020-10-ancient-hominins-stone-tools.html] * South Africa's Blombos cave is home to the earliest drawing by a human (The Convo) [https://theconversation.com/south-africas-blombos-cave-is-home-to-the-earliest-drawing-by-a-human-103017] Contact * Email the Dirt Podcast: thedirtpodcast@gmail.com Affiliates * Wildnote [http://www.wildnoteapp.com/] * TeePublic [https://www.teepublic.com/?ref_id=5724&ref_type=aff] * Timeular [https://timeular.com/ref/chriswebster/]